Sarlota Hohwald
The right mix of data, insights and digital solutions can empower wealthtechs to grow their assets under management and optimise their success in a dynamic and competitive industry.
- Wealthtechs need to offer hyper-personalised experiences and omnichannel connectivity to thrive in a dynamic and highly competitive environment.
- Refinitiv provides unsurpassed breadth and depth of data, leading-edge technology and decades of experience to develop engaging client experiences for wealthtechs.
- Refinitiv delivers targeted support to empower wealthtechs to differentiate their digital offerings and grow market share.
Fintechs: reimagining the wealth space
As the wealth management industry continues to undergo a period of profound and accelerating digital transformation, successfully meeting the changing needs of an evolving breed of tech-savvy investors has become top of mind for many industry participants.
Fintech, or financial technology, is very broadly the delivery of a range of financial services through digital means. Wealthtech is a subset of fintech focused on delivering wealth management services digitally, which is essential in today’s world.
The substantial intergenerational wealth transfer continues to see the assets under management of digital natives grow, and coupled with fee compression and advancements in technology, this presents a key opportunity for wealthtechs.
These investors expect engaging and personalised digital experiences as well as omnichannel connectivity.
Wealthtechs need to offer the right mix of data and digital solutions to stay relevant in the face of increasing competition
Against this backdrop, wealth industry players are leveraging the power of technology to reimagine the wealth space, which is home to a range of unique fintechs, including:
Robo-advisors: These are online wealth management services that leverage advanced portfolio management algorithms to offer automated investment advice. Robo-advisors provide a cost-effective option for investors wanting a self-directed experience supported by trusted digitally generated advice.
Online brokers: These empower self-directed investors to manage their own portfolios and investments online, supporting them by providing access to digital tools, research, market data, insights and more.
Opportunity brings unique challenges for wealthtechs
Wealthtechs must deliver a personalised and engaging client experience from the get-go.
From onboarding, asset allocation and portfolio monitoring to personalised insights and investment ideas, firms need to offer an intuitive and frictionless client experience that yields high value if they are going to thrive in a competitive environment.
Some key challenges include:
Developing a leading digital experience: A leading digital experience should leverage a range of different capabilities – from video calls and chat features to interactive apps and social media engagement accessible across a range of devices. A recent Refinitiv report, found that a substantial 46 percent of investors access account information via a mobile app.
Keeping pace with technology: With new entrants and rapidly growing competition, it is crucial that wealthtechs keep pace with the perpetual advancements and developments in technology, ensuring they remain client-centric and deliver what investors expect.
Reducing time to market: In a fast-paced industry, wealthtechs need to ensure that they move quickly to create and deliver new and updated solutions to market in order to attract and retain market share.
Managing and controlling costs: Many wealthtechs are start-ups or scale-ups and must keep a tight rein on costs.
Agile solutions to deliver personalised experiences
Ensuring personalised experiences is key to the long-term success of all wealthtechs. Our research shows that 64 percent of millennials and 51 percent of investors in the 35-54 age bracket are willing to pay more for personalised investing products and services.
Refinitiv’s range of agile solutions has been developed to empower wealth firms to deliver this personalised experience – wealthtechs can combine our digital capabilities, data and analytics with their proprietary and client data to tailor solutions for their clients and add value:
- Tap into the full depth and breadth of our market-leading data and news, which, combined with our advanced analytics, helps investors to filter out the noise to quickly uncover relevant insights.
- Use our digital capabilities and solutions to help pinpoint opportunities that align with each investor’s risk profile and objectives, ensuring a personalised experience for each investor.
- Deliver unique insights leveraging media and social sentiment indicators based on thousands of news and social media sites from around the globe, helping to inform investment decisions.
- Meet the growing demand for sustainability and ESG data, and help investors align their values with investment decisions with our ESG data, covering more than 450 data points across 210 countries.
With both the global presence and local reach to solve the dynamic challenges that characterise the wealth space, Refinitiv continues to work with our clients and partners, delivering solutions that help differentiate their offerings and add greater value.